Education standards in Meru to rise, says Senator Kiraitu

Meru, Kenya: Head teachers whose schools drops in performance for 3 successive years will be relieved of their positions, an education forum was told at the weekend. Teachers Service Commission (TSC) county director Ambaka Kilinga said the commission had formulated a policy that seeks to improve academic performance and any teachers who fail to deliver would not be condoned.

“If a school drops for 3 years in a row, we are changing the head teacher. That is the policy. We will also interdict teachers who come to school drunk and those who aid students in cheating in examinations,” said Mr Kilinga, when he attended the launch of Kionyo Primary School Old Students Association, a brainchild of Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi.

Mr Murungi, an old student of Kionyo Primary School in Imenti South, said all schools should have old students associations to mentor current students. He said as an old student at Kionyo, he wanted to see improved grades in the school, Imenti South Sub county and Meru county. “It was embarrassing that Meru was number 33 out of 47 counties in last year’s KCPE. The last school in Kenya is from Meru. As leaders we have met and decided a repeat of that will not happen. We are working to uplift education standards in Meru,” said Mr Murungi.

The senator urged all professionals and parents to form old students associations to guide students in the county. “As Meru professionals we asked ourselves why the last school in Kenya was from Meru. We decided that everybody should go back to their old schools and motivate the children, because we want them to succeed. That is why I came back to Kionyo, where I attended school from 1965,” Mr Murungi told the forum.

He said the association will guide and offer material and moral support to students at the school and its neighbors. “As senator, I want all schools in Meru to experience good change in academic performance. We will motivate our teachers so that they can work hard. We want to achieve excellence.” He at the same time pledged that the Kiraitu Murungi Foundation would offer financial and other support to poor students. “My foundation will help bright students, not necessarily the poor. I will help students from all financial backgrounds, as long as they are promising, academically,” he said.

 Willy Machocho, the county director of education, said performance will be better this year, “Because we were able train 1000 teachers in the bottom 200 schools. We trained them on how to raise their standards of teaching and we know we are on the way to restoring academic glory.”